VAIO TZ Owner's Thread

I thought I would start this thread, because I'm sure they'll be a lot of TZ questions. I just got mine from Dynamism and so far all I can say it's mind-blowingly small and light. Screen is fantastic too, as previously reported.

Unfortunately, the SSD is already filled with 15GB of stuff, but Vista (Windows folder) is only 7.8GB, so that's not the problem. Dynamism only includes a few apps on the disk:

1. Office 2007 OEM -- this must be the pig, because it has things like Business Contact Manager, etc. I will try to deal with this first.

2. Skype, Adobe Reader 8, SonicStage -- these should all be useful so I can leave them alone.

Fire away!

 

Will you be conducing a full review soon? Nah, I'm sure you will. : )

 

Yep, I will. First impression: The SSD makes Vista performance entirely acceptable, so I'm going to leave well enough alone and just use it! Funny, the TZ runs just about as fast as my ASUS VX2 did, and that's telling you something!

 

Congratulations!

I'd be very grateful if you can provide us with some battery life info once you have some time available.

 

At full brightness and with Wi-Fi on, it looks like the standard battery can almost reach five hours, so it might be possible to squeeze six hours out of it with power savings applied.

 

Windows Vista start-up time until the last task-tray icon has loaded and the SSD kinda stops flickering: 1 minute. Not too shabby, I'd say.

 

For Adobe reader, try FOXIT. Its tiny..

 

when you say standard, do you mean the medium battery or the default lightweight one?

 

Medium battery, not light one.

 

Thanks! is this with other power savings engaged as well? E.g. bluetooth off, CPU on minimum etc.

 

picture please!!

thank you!

 

Which lid color did you get? I think you got Premium Carbon? Did you get the optical drive or 160gb hard drive? And I apologize for asking so many questions and repeating some in the past, I won't be annoying now ubercool.

 

I got the carbon fiber, the SSD/DVD combination. It's in the Windows Update process now, that will take some time.

 

Battery update. It's fully charged now and when I checked the meter, it said 5:10 left. That's with screen at full brightness, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on.

 

I had to remove Dynamism's OEM version of Office 2007, since my Office 2007 Pro key did not work with it.

In the process, I gained 1GB in weight. Why I don't know. I just deleted 2GB in "Hibernation Files" so that brought me back to 14GB used, 16GB left. Talk about putting your system on a diet!

 

Did you just delete the files or did you turn off the restore points /shadow copy stuff?

I found that turning that off completely got me back several GB and gave me a bit of a performance boost on my SZ.

 

No I used Disk Clean Up to simply delete those files. If it's gonna hurt my performance, I don't want to know about it!

I just turned AERO off to see if it would lift my WEI from 2.0, but no dice, it stayed at the same place (determined by lowest score), so I turned AERO back on. Besides, this lappy is nice and fast, unbelievable what a difference an SSD makes! It's like a tad slower than my ASUS VX2 was, but without acting like a 6.2 lb. heatsink!

 

Was it you that also has a Vaio G or was it someone else here?

 

No, that's Fender I believe.

 

Hey Uber I am so jealous. I mine was suppose to ship today, when i called they said that they were having major issues with the imaging. I said I would take my not imaged with the US Vista and I would do it myselft. They then told me that they didn't have any of my config in stock... Kinda pissed I am off on a business trip next week and now I am going to have to wait until mid next week before the unit ships... I hope it is worth the wait

 

Balto, I hope you get it in time for your trip. It's totally worth the wait. It's going to be a great travel notebook. The battery, screen and the fact that you can actually enjoy Vista on a 2.6 lb. lappy is out of control!

 

I just checked out the U1F, my god, its beautiful, light, but has only 1 memory slot for a total of 1.5GB or 2.5GB depending on the stick you get. Just wondering ubercool:

- Does the TZ come with 2 memory slots, for a total of 4GB memory?
- Can it have an external optical drive, or is it built in?

 

This may be an odd question, but exactly how far will the lid of the notebook rotate (90 degrees, 180 degrees, etc.) from the main body? I ask this because I'm curious as to it's usefulness as, possibly, a pdf reader in more traditional book format.

 

No, the TZ only comes with one memory slot, so it's either 1 or 2GB of RAM.

My model came with a built-in DVD drive, but you can order a version that substitutes the DVD for a 160GB HD, which is what some people here are opting for.

 

As far as the RAZR goes! Is that about 160 degrees?

 

That is a bummer! Looks like its either SZ or M1310!

 

Congratulations ubercool!

You are the first of all that will take this laptop. All great what are you saying about the screen and the speed of SSD but i thought that the standard battery would last more than 5 hours...For me is going to be my main laptop, do you think is ok?
Enjoy TZ!

 

Do you have the DVD drive or HD? Can you post full specs? Is that Office software a trial?
How much was your laptops total price including shipping? How long does it take to arrive?
If this guy buys my Sony T250 Saturday I may be interested in a TZ.

 

This will be my primary laptop too, so I don't see any problems with that strategy, it's beautiful, super light and fast!

 

Well, if you are ever running low on disk space, you can try turning it off completely. http://tinyurl.com/35ld62

 

Um, I mentioned before that I got the SSD/DVD version. And I'm glad I did, because I can see that this will fun to have to watch movies with and it was easy to install software with too. Plus, it's fab to be able to press the eject button and have the DVD ejected, very cool.

The Office software is an OEM trial version that you can use 30 times, I believe. You would have buy the license key from Dynamism.

You can see prices and shipping rates here:

http://www.dynamism.com/tz90/main.shtml

I ordered mine like last Thursday and got it in a week, so that's probably typical if they don't have it in stock, otherwise you get it the next day. (I got it via overnight shipping.)

Oh, it's lightyears ahead of any T series. The last one I tried made hard disk clicking sounds, this drive is totally silent. Almost strange not to hear anything.

 

Great!

How is the fan so far? You confirm that TZ runs cooly and quietly? I'm sure that watching movies at this screen will be quite an experience

You already purchase an external HD? And if yes, which?

 

The left bottom gets warm, but not hot. No fan noise whatsoever.

I bought the Seagate FreeAgent Go 160GB and I'm transferring files now as we speak. It's so incredibly small, it's a perfect complement for the TZ.

 

Can you at least feel the air flowing out of the TZ to confirm the fan is actually running?

 

Glad you like it ubercool,

would you recommend this one as a primary laptop over SZ for everyday work (around 5 hours) even with its 11.1 screen ?

 

Actually, I heard the fan whirring today. It's a low woosh, not distracting at all.

 

I'm using it as a primary machine and the biggest adjustment by far is the keyboard. The screen is not a problem at all, but you may not be able to adjust to cramped finger space. YMMV.

 

good thing I don't have sausages for fingers!

 

Yea, that would be a deal-breaker!

 

Outrigger you already took an english Vista Home Premium for the TZ from Japan?

 

What about a cover ubercool?Did you purchase anything?The Carrying Leather Case is nice but expensive.
I like also the [VGP-CKTZ1/H] Carrying Case, in Dynamism 79$.

 

Mine was shipped from Tokyo today and will be here Mon or Tue. It only comes with vista basic japanese, but Im going to get a copy of home premium english and do a fresh install when I receive it.

uber, you didn't do a fresh install correct? were there a decent amount of bloatware on it? or did dynamism cleaned it up for you?

btw, you think it would be possible for you to email me the vista drivers in any way? I don't think pricejapan includes any and I'm going to delete any hidden partition since it'll just restore the japanese vista anyways, useless to me.

 

To ubercool:

Can you put a picture of TZ please? I want to see the colour more. I don't know if i will go for the premium fibre or the classic black.
How is going so far? Satisfidied?

 

First one is black, second one is premium carbon color.

http://www.gfx.sony.co.jp/photodata/include/photo/20070516131920_0001.jpg
http://www.gfx.sony.co.jp/photodata/include/photo/20070515191529_0001.jpg

 

Great job rahu!
Wow difficult decision

 

Hope you can read this with those forum-busting pix above!

I'm satisfied. I had a few problems with Vista, mainly related to two programs I do not recommend using at all: Diskeeper Pro and RegistryFix. These were recommended in the software forum, but have created havoc on both Vista machines I've owned thusfar.

Once I was able to roll back, it's been smoother sailing. I also must tell you that unlike what I reported before, the TZ gets hot. In fact, it can get very hot on the left side, when the processor is churning at full speed, which thankfully is not very often.

Also, you need to use that special cable included with the FreeAgent Go hard disk, because the TZ USB ports are underpowered. So, it's a great that Sony put them next to each other, very convenient for external drives.

The keyboard is OK, it's a bit mushy, not the best I've used, but not terrible either.

 

*awaits mass whining*

 

Does Dynamism sells Japanese version of the TZ?
how does it work? will it install the English version?
and does it come with the Vista disc ?
I have a 2" external disk that use everyday, do you think i can power it with one usb port? is the TZ really that under power?

Thanks!

 

Heyy, can you elaborate a little bit more about the keyboard? is it sticky, too squishy, too much travel?

Also, how does it hold up multitasking? I've been debating between this one (my #1 choice cuz it's so damn sexy), the SZ, and a macbook...I don't need a graphics card for any particular purpose but I tend to run a LOT of applications at once, with 2gb ram does it hold up well with a lot of programs running?

I'm also wonderin if I should just go ahead and buy it, or wait till it's released in the US (if ever?) I assume if they release it in the US some stuff will be changed, like that feli card reader since no one uses it here....hmmmm

thx for ur help

 

Dynamism installs a U.S. version of Vista Home Premium. No Vista discs, but recovery disks are included. Haven't used them, so don't know if they're any good.

There are two USB ports. You'll need them both for powering drives that need full power via USB, like my Seagate FreeAgent Go drive.

The TZ is not underpowered, but it has made sure that connected drives can't rob it of any more power.